Sherlock and The "East Wind"

When I watch TV (which is rare), I like documentaries most. There are some fictional shows that I enjoy and I noticed that most of those are British mystery types. Agatha Christie (of "Ten Little Niggers" fame) created two of my favorite sleuths: Marple and Poirot and they are portrayed well by BBC productions. My all-time favorite detective though has to be Sherlock Holmes.

I grew up reading Sherlock stories, then I started finding the old movies on late-night television. Now with the internet and streaming services, I can find Sherlock anywhere. One of the best shows, in my opinion, was one that played as a short serial on one of the streaming services. I cannot at this moment remember the title but I will update later. It was featured a fictional relationship between Dr. Joseph Bell (who, along with another person I can't think of just now, helped inspire the Holmes character) and an apprentice. I hate botched brain for mangling this memory

My least favorite portrayal of Holmes was done by Robert Downey Jr. He's a good actor but he always seems to be playing some version of himself. It didn't work for me. As a kid, I really liked Jeremy Brett as Holmes, but I have to admit that the best and most entertaining Holmes is played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2010-2017 series "Sherlock" (currently on Netflix).  And it's not just because of his portrayal but because of the supporting cast. Watson is awesome and I swear I knew someone who reminds me of the Mycroft character. I liked that Mary Watson was prominently featured but I didn't like the part that centered around her character's run-in with an old partner. 

So, I say all this to reinforce how much I love the character of Sherlock Holmes and that I can watch and re-watch the 2017 version with Cumberbatch and crew. As a matter of fact, that's what I did just this past week when I was down sick for a couple of days.

Mycroft says something that I remember reading or hearing in past Sherlock books and movies. The quote is "There is an East wind coming, Sherlock." Now... if you have NOT seen the show (currently on Netflix)...

SPOILER ALERT

Here are a couple of clips featuring the quote mentioned:

Now, Mycroft says more than once in different places in this particular series that there is "an East wind coming". And each time I heard it, I thought, "How poetic!" But I didn't catch the original source - until I was doing my reading this morning in Job.

“The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.” (Job 27:21)

Now I know. 

So I started thinking how much of the Bible is stolen by pop culture - much of which is so anti-God that it's horrifying. I have read the Bible and I missed this "East wind" part. I bet there are a lot of people who don't realize how pop culture producers use the Bible. And I got to thinking. How can we see the Bible and Bible concepts portrayed in Pop Culture (P.C.)?

• Wikipedia, of course, has a long list of the many ways we see the Bible in various ways in P.C.
• This shows some of the ways that biblical concepts are misconstrued.
• LED Studios on YouTube does thought-provoking pieces on how many movies and shows (especially those featuring "superheroes" and comic-book characters) steal and twist biblical concepts. This is one playlist that covers a lot of material. (Side note here: I highly disapprove of the fact that LED Studios hide their SDA denomination. This is a prevalent deception among the SDA. I have communicated with LED about this. Still, I wanted to include the playlist. Just be aware of where the information is coming from and use discernment.)
• I don't need to point out how many shows like "The Simpsons", "Family Guy", and others use characters to make fun of Bible believers. I don't mind that they mock us, but they should be afraid of mocking God.

Those are just some examples.

What is so crazy to me is that when I was looking for information about the Bible in P.C., a lot of sources regarded as positive the use of Scripture verses in otherwise morally questionable music and art. It's as if there is a mention of or quotes from Scripture, then that's a good thing - even if the rest of the song is about something that's not condoned by the Word of God.

I find the show "Lucifer" astonishingly blasphemous. 

After watching the YouTube videos about superheroes, this graphic might strike you a different kind of way:

I just wanted to rant a little, I guess. That I only just realized about the "East wind" quote is a lesson to me. I don't read my Bible enough! LOL

Peace

--Free

Consider Job

 I have been sharing this with everyone I talk to so I thought I would also post about it here.

I have started doing a chronological reading of the Bible (and it just took me 3 misspellings to get that word down correctly!) and when I got to Job last week, I expected to find it less engaging than Genesis. Not so.

Job 1-5 were the first chapters on the list and I barely made it past the reading because I found myself in tears. I mean, tears just started pouring when I realized how my sister's story - and my mother's and so many other people out there - mirrored Job's. He lost property, family, and health. Yet - and this is the part that made me think of my sister and mother - he never lost faith in God.

Maybe I am just being hypersensitive but I can't tell you how that realization hit me. I started texting my family and telling them.

This reading and its blessing came at a great time. I have friends and neighbors who are really starting to buckle a bit under this lockdown and the always-horrible news. My best friend and one of my neighbors have been especially hard hit by not being able to attend their churches. My best friend has been sick a lot lately and fellowship with those in her church was always something that gave her strength. The other day she spent a short time in the hospital and when she got home, she was so down and depressed that I didn't know what to say to help. Then I started reading Job.

Here is what I came away with that I have shared with my best friend:

Job was tested not because God didn't love him but because God did love him. God knew that he was someone who could be tested and stand strong. 

Sometimes, we think that we go through things because of our sins or because God is trying to punish us for something we aren't aware of. People lose property and loved ones and their health. Some of us use such a tragedy as an excuse to turn against or blame God. 

What Job taught me is that we have to stand strong. If our faith can be broken by sorrow and tragedy, we never had true faith, in my opinion. If we say that God is faithful and loves us - He is and He does -then we have to trust in Him no matter what life, the world, storms, car accidents, illness, etcetera throws at us. 

Reading Job reminded me that we live in a world run by darkness. We spent a short time here but we will have eternity with the Lord.

So, I thought about my sister who lost loved ones, homes, personal independence, and her health - but never, ever lost her faith in God. There were times when she had to remind me how much God loves me. I remember when she lost her first leg, the hospital arranged for home visits from a chaplain to counsel and encourage her. Listen, my sister ended up being the one encouraging the chaplain! I kid you not.

Once, when I first got diagnosed with sarcoidosis and was warped out of my mind on high doses of prednisone, I got really depressed and mean. My sister would remind me that I was at least living in a time when there are medicines and treatments for my condition. She even made me laugh about how crazy the "predni-devil" pills made me. And all this is while she was a double amputee with kidney failure and a heart problem. Not long after that, she developed Triple Negative Breast Cancer and her nurses and doctors looked forward to seeing her because of her smile and positive attitude. She knew she was going to die but she was not afraid of anything but not being there for the rest of us.

So, consider God's servant, Job. Amen? Absolutely. When you get discouraged and depressed and sick and put to grief - consider Job and remember his faithfulness. Remember that God loves us just as He loved Job.

I just wanted to share that with you all.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: This is a song that I love to listen to when I feel the news and the lockdown getting to me

Reading the Bible Properly

 I really should be ashamed to admit this but I will because I truly think it will help someone else. So, I have a confession to make:

After growing up in church and becoming a Christian several years ago and having read the Bible all the way through more than once, I only just now learned how to read my Bible.

There. It feels good to just get that out. Now, here is the rest of the story:

I have been using my KJV Study Bible for the last, oh... four years? I started because the pastor of the church I attended back in Anchorage suggested that it was the best Bible for devotional reading. Up until then, I had been mostly using the Amplified, NKJV, or NASB version at home and using whatever KJV Bible was in the back of the pew at church. I had (and still do) several phone apps with all kinds of versions of the Bible. The point is, I didn't really mind whatever Bible I used because I was only reading the words from book to book and by chapter and verse. I rarely, if ever, paid any attention to the extras.

As you can see, those "helps" are useful if you are really trying to study. And this is just in a regular "reference" type of Bible. My mother used this kind of Bible so there was always one around the house.

Like a lot of people, I usually opted for a Bible version without the thees and thous. Funny enough, now that I am really immersing myself in Bible study and reading, that doesn't trip me up. 

My KJV Study Bible is much like this one - except mine is a soft-cover version. And the How-To-Use section is almost identical to the one in my Bible.

See what I mean? Helpful. And  I had barely paid attention to it until I started doing a lot of Bible studies and began a chronological read-through. 

Yes, I am embarrassed. But I am so happy that I finally took the time to learn how to properly read and study my Bible. 

The chronological reading plan is one with which you are reading the Bible in the order things happened. Since I obviously wasn't paying much attention all the other times I read through the Bible, I am enjoying this plan. It takes longer because I am stopping to read all the explanatory notes, check some of the cross-references, and reflect on various things. I try to take notes also. 

Let me tell you what an amazing difference it is to use all of the aids and actually ponder things as you read. And I am doing something that Chuck Missler suggested: reading aloud. Because I have such struggles with concentration and memory, hearing myself read the words is more useful than I would have thought.

Right now, my best friend is going through some things and this lockdown doesn't help her mood. What I have been doing is something that helps us both. Whenever we talk (almost daily), I will share what I learned from my reading or study. She feels better after our sharing conversations and I have added another reinforcement for my own memory. (Did that make sense???)

So, basically, I just writing this post to encourage others to use all the resources that come with their Bible. Right now, a lot of us are not attending church on a regular basis. We might as well use the lockdown time to just soak ourselves in God's Word.

The links I added in the post will go over the different types of reading plans. Also, there are a lot of apps and free web resources for tips on studying or reading your Bible. Here are the few that I picked up and am implementing:

• Try doing your reading/study at the same time every day or session. (I like doing mine just before bed or first thing in the morning.)
• Read out loud. You don't have to read loud but it helps to vocalize the words. This helps me remember what I have read.)
• Get a notebook or staple some paper together to make a little notes journal. There are some nice journals out there but they get spendy. (I have some newsprint paper that I fold and staple into little booklets. The paper is super-affordable and easy to write on. Newsprint is also really thin and I like using it to slip notes between Bible pages.

Letter-sized newprint

By the way - sorry for the awful photo alignment. Blogger decided to make changes & almost all of them made things worse...

• If you can, try sharing what you read with someone. Sharing and discussing what you read/studied is uplifting and helps to reinforce the lessons.
• If you struggle with procrastinating, remind yourself that you would make time to play a game on your phone, watch a TV show or YouTube video, etc. 
• Be thankful that we still live in a place where we are allowed to read our Bibles without worrying about being jailed or killed. I will remind myself to be thankful that I still have eyesight and that my brain works enough for me to read God's Word. 

I hope that this encourages and uplifts you. 

Peace

--Free